People so moved by the spirit of the season are stepping up to layaway counters at retailers across the nation, paying off the holiday balances of strangers in need.

“I was surprised. It seemed so amazing to me,” said Annette Pride, who works the layaway counter at a Kmart in Englewood and has witnessed acts of covert generosity since late last week.

The stories bring tears to her eyes.

“One woman stopped at the pawnshop and pawned something” to pay off her balance, Pride said, “but when she got here she found out that someone had already done that.”

The so-called Secret Santas have shown up mostly at Kmarts in Michigan, Ohio, Florida and Colorado. Some have done their good deeds at Walmart, including one man who paid $8,880 to assure 23 families in Avon, Ohio, could get their gifts.

After the first Secret Santa request in Englewood, Pride and her co-workers quickly conspired on the best way to help. They looked for balances of less than $250 that were for kids’ toys and clothes, then wrote the names and sums on sheets of yellow notebook paper.

“It took some work on our part, but being part of this is awesome,” said Kasandra West, who had to keep digging through boxes in layaway because the Secret Santas blew through the original lists Friday.

“The economy is awful,” store employee Melissa Johnson said. “There’s not as much money around as there used to be, so it’s mind-blowing that people are stepping up like this.”

The Secret Santa movement seems to have started weeks ago in Michigan, when an anonymous donor showed up at a Kmart in Grand Rapids and spent $500 to pay off three accounts. After media coverage of that donation, a man showed up the next day to pay $2,000. The story soon went viral, spreading through Twitter, YouTube, blogs and local media coverage.

Each retailer has different layaway rules, but most require biweekly payments, and if those are missed, fees and down payments are forfeited.

Some donors have only enough to pay down part of a balance, while others pick up entire tabs.

On Monday morning in Englewood, a Littleton wife and mother stopped by the store at the corner of South Broadway and West Belleview Avenue and spent nearly $500 to take the balances of three families down to 10 cents each.

“So much is on the news about class warfare,” said the woman, who wanted her layaway largesse to remain anonymous. “We need to do stuff that brings people together.”

Kmart employees have the happy job of calling people to tell them their balance has been paid off.

Gary Jas, who says the employees have been “misty-eyed” since this whole thing started last week, made yet another call delivering the good news Monday afternoon. The voice on the other end of the line was shocked and then asked questions about how to thank the donor.

“They remain anonymous,” he said with a grin. “I think their thanks is just knowing that they helped someone.”

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